WESTERN EUROPE: The Trouble with Coalitions

In most Western European nations
these days, no party commands an absolute majority, and most must rule
by coalition. The net effect of coalitions is usually to dull debates,
to narrow ambitions and to blunt the cutting edge of bold politics.
Rivalries that would otherwise be threshed out in the open, are fought
out instead inside Cabinet meetings. Cabinets fall unexpectedly and new
ones must be formed. Examples of these processes at work last week:

Finland. A coalition of five non-Communist partiesthe 19th government
since World War IIwas forced out by internal bickering...